The Star-Gazette paints a very complex situation with a brush that is far too broad (”Beneath the minimum,” June 29).

NYSARC does agree that the subminimum wage and sheltered employment can be inappropriately used. Many NYSARC chapters have significantly or completely eliminated sheltered employment. Others are striving to follow suit, and NYSARC advocates continually for the jobs and government funded supports necessary to accomplish that goal.

For now, though, the subminimum wage and sheltered employment often separate people with developmental disabilities from meaningless lives of prolonged inactivity and deteriorating functional capabilities. Sitting at home doing nothing for 24 hour a day is bad for the most able of us. For people with disabilities, it is a personal catastrophe. During a period in which employment remains elusive for the most able workers, it can be impossible for many people with disabilities.

As for the subminimum wage, it is a fact — especially in today’s fragile economy — that employers will not hire people and pay them minimum wage or better unless they can earn it. The subminimum wage and sheltered employment, as imperfect as some might say they are, constitute tools for engaging the abilities of those persons who would otherwise languish.

Finally, it is critical to point out that, contrary to what the article implies, the subminimum wage plays no role whatsoever in supporting the salaries of executive staff. That is a grotesque distortion and implies an unforgivable level of exploitation that no NYSARC chapter would ever permit. Appropriate executive compensation is an issue which has been debated on its own merits and is the subject of an executive order by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. To imply that executive salaries are in any way facilitated by the subminimum wage is utterly and factually baseless.

We will all welcome the day when government mandates for ending the subminimum wage and sheltered employment are equaled by government and private sector support for the means necessary to accomplish that task, but for now that day appears to be a very long way off.

Brandt is the executive director of NYSARC Inc.

NOTE: During reporting for the story, reporter Stephen Reilly spoke with NYSARC spokesman Jayson White, seeking comment. White said he would speak to Executive Director Marc Brandt, but neither called back.